Art or sport? Minister Mani seems to make no discrimination

Thodupuzha: At the venue of the Idukki Revenue District-level Art Festival, minister M M Mani sounded like he landed by accident. Speaking to the public from a dais where MLAs PJ Joseph and ES Bijimol were also present, he started off a volley of errors after welcoming all to the sports carnival.

He soon slipped into a torrent of accusations on Indian sporting fraternity saying very few people made a mark. "Other than P T Usha, Preeja Sreedharan and Shiny Abraham, how many others did anything significant?", he asked.

While countries like the US and even African nations were basking in medal glory, the country made no headway into the top of the medal list. At this stage he suddenly mentioned the art festival but again slipped back into the sports mode.

With his declaration that the state had earmarked Rs. 10.45 lakhs for the events the anxious and confused crowd sighed relief as they felt assured he was mixing up the speech as the said amount was originally earmarked for the arts festival.

Anyway the minister didn't miss the end, he closed his speech wishing good luck to the artists from various fields assembled at the venue.

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